Toshiba forecasts $1 billion loss: Report

According to reports, Toshiba has announced a forecast net loss of $970 million due to the tax impact of selling its memory chip business, which was itself sold to make up for losses incurred from its nuclear energy business.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has reported that it expects to post a net loss of 110 billion yen ($970 million) this financial year following the sale of its memory chip business, according to a report by Reuters.

The loss will come instead of its previously forecast net profit of 230 billion yen due to taxes incurred during the sale of the chip business, although its revenue forecast remains unchanged, Reuters reported.

As part of the sale, Toshiba said it would be investing 350.5 billion yen into the memory chip unit, maintaining some ownership over it, and last month said that it expected to close the deal "within days".

The tech company had originally named Bain as its preferred bidder back in June, although the sale had been slowed down after joint venture partner Western Digital had struggled to submit a competing bid alongside KKR after its original bid was rejected.

As a result, Toshiba announced in June that it was planning to sue Western Digital for 120 billion yen, claiming the latter had interfered in the sale of the memory chip business.

Western Digital had "continually interfered with the bid process" and "exaggerated" the power it had in relation to a potential sale, Toshiba claimed, and also made moves to prevent Western Digital employees in its Yokkaichi plant from accessing information pertaining to their partnership.

Reuters said the delayed sale could potentially lead to Toshiba "not getting anti-trust clearance before the end of the financial year", which could in turn result in the Tokyo Stock Exchange delisting the company.

The sale of Toshiba Memory, which is expected to complete by March 2018, was an effort by the company to make up the losses it suffered after selling its nuclear power business Westinghouse Electric.

Toshiba posted a net loss of 965.7 billion yen for the financial year ending March 31, 2017, and after continually delaying its financial results announcement as a result of the troubles, it was demoted to the second rung of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Toshiba in April similarly announced that it is considering selling off its Moorside development company NuGeneration, while Toshiba president Satoshi Tsunakawa reportedly took a pay cut to help keep the company in business.

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